Media Evaluation - Thomas Moore

Part 1- The story of our films revolves around a young drug dealer owing money after it was stolen from him. So now he is seeking revenge to get back what he lost and repay the money he owes in fear of death. This is similar to the film ‘trainspotting’ (produced by film 4) which involves a large drug deal and ‘shifty’ (distributed by WARP films) which shows a drug dealer having his stash stolen and having to get it back, these are both British movies. The opening sequence of our film shows the two drug dealers Paddy and Barry, after getting ready in his run down house Paddy leaves but by coincidence runs into Barry and a chase begins from there. This leads to Paddy being chased down, beaten and told he has one day to find the money he owes ( unfortunately the latter never made it into the final two minutes of the movie)

Part 2- The target audience for our film would be mostly male teenagers older than 15 (our film’s certificate is 15) and people in their early twenties, it would also most likely appeal to people living in urban areas. Our film would also be most likely be viewed by a similar audience to films like ‘shifty’ and ‘KiDULTHOOD’ as these are of a similar genre. Before producing our film we submitted a questionnaire asking what people thought about our movie to blogger, YouTube [http://youtu.be/6b9yzCwWG6o and our personal Facebook pages, based on the feedback received we were able to understand our target audience and change any aspects of the film that weren’t desirable to them. We received feedback on the YouTube video that was uploaded and we were told “The plot seems solid. I liked the idea of the character owing money and having a limited time to give this, making the movie tense.” This was good because it meant that we were staying true to the thriller aspect of our film as our story added tension. The person who replied was also within our target audience age range (15+) meaning we were appealing to the intended group of people. On our facebook some people suggested that the too much money was owed so this took away from the realism, because of this we later lowered the amount the Paddy owes Barry.

 Part 3- Our film would most likely be distributed by a small British company such as WARP or metrodome mainly as this is a British film but also because these companies are known to distribute films which would most likely not appeal to a mainstream/international audience, and because these films are funded by institutions such as The National Lottery the production isn’t effected by investors wanting a large return so the actual film isn’t changed by someone else such as in the big American conglomerate companies. Because of there being less focus on profit films such as ‘This Is England’ are able to be produced even though they only appeal to a niche, British audience. Being produced by a smaller company such as WARP would mean the budget would be much smaller because they are independent companies meaning they have a lot less money which can be used, unlike studios like Universal. A theme with the smaller companies is that the films are more gritty and realistic; this is because they do not have a huge budget and cannot afford elaborate special effects or CGI, although this wouldn’t be such a problem with our production as it is a urban thriller so it is mainly based on real life.

Part 4- Our film follows a linear narrative (follows the beginning, middle and end rule) as opposed to a non-linear narrative which can shift back and forth through the story. The plot is established by the opening chase seen that is the premise for the rest of the film focusing on Paddy owing money. The genre of our production is ‘Urban Thriller’; we achieved this by filming our movie in an urban/gritty atmosphere and using locations such as the alley [Picture of chase road to right], also the characters contributed to the urban aspect of the genre with their clothes (trainers, hoodies etc) but also the way they interact with each other (bumping knuckles, meeting in alleys and the language they use such as swear words). To cater to the thriller side of our film we have a tense story focusing on time running out, but also the opening chase scene which is fast paced and filmed mostly freehand, this adds excitement because it makes it move faster. The use of fake blood is also part of the thriller aspect and the punch which is there to make the viewer ‘jump’ because it is fast paced and unexpected. Fades also added drama and tension to the slower scenes such as when Paddy is getting dressed, this also adds more of a contrast to when later in the opening sequence the chase scene starts and a lot of small, fast cuts are used. We used camera angles to focus the viewers’ attention on specific parts of what’s going on such as when Paddy is pinned against the fence by Barry. The continuity of our film is correct all the way through apart from the one shot of Barry shouting which was filmed at a different location; to make this less noticeable we zoomed in to show less of the surroundings. During our film the music is timed with the video so that the scenes change on the beat with the music, and also the music corresponds with what is going on screen. The sounds of our film are mainly footsteps/ running noise which adds to realism of the film, but also when Paddy is choosing which way to run and is punched, the silence adds tension but also the noise of the punch makes the viewer ‘jump’. As previously mentioned we made sure our characters were in run down clothes such as trainers, hoodies and jackets. Our use of props made the characters more believable by conforming to stereotypes of a drug dealer, by having things like ‘cocaine’ and alcohol on the table. For our titles we used a downloaded font from dafont.com, we did this because the default fonts that were available didn’t match the style and genre of our film. We experimented with different fonts before deciding on the one you see in the production, we didn’t want the size of the fonts to be too big as that wasn’t relevant. Instead we used a combination of fades with the titles to add tension to the film. We made sure that the iconography of film was easy to identify as an urban thriller by using a combination of the things mentioned above.

Part 5- Our film only features young males, at the start of the film we cater to stereotypes by portraying young males as violent, foul mouthed thugs who cannot communicate or reason, but later in the film they begin to communicate form a friendship and a plan. They also use their street knowledge/wit to get the money they need. This challenges stereotypes as this shows they can be the opposite of what I mentioned above. Because our 2 minutes only featured males we couldn’t represent a gender one specific way, instead we had to focus on representing the characters as individuals. We did this using class, Paddy is living in a scruffy house with newspaper on the windows, this makes him a lower class than Barry. We see Barry as higher up in society because he is owed money, not owing it and because he is chasing Paddy this means he has the power over the situation and over Paddy. Using sound we made Barry an imposing figure because he is loud and strikes fear into Paddy who remains mostly silent for the opening scene. In order to make Barry imposing but also make him easily identifiable as a powerful man and force to be reckoned with, we had him walk with confidence and be able to shout like he is the boss. We also conformed to stereotypes by having the ‘bad guy’ smoking. We did conform to location stereotypes by having using a ‘rough areas’ for the chase scene but also an alley for the drug deal which is covered in graffiti and seems out of the way. This also made the deal seem more shifty and dodgy. We also conformed to stereotypyes by having charecters using bad language and hanging out in bad looking places. We also used a rugged/grungy font to add to the urban feel of the film, the film has to look right so it can be identified as an ‘urban’ film.

Part6- Initially to attract an audience we created a blogger page for the production of our movie, we then shared this page in various places such as our facebook pages. We used questionaires to also get an audiences interest by asking them what they thought and giving them the opurtunity to give suggestions to what should be done with the movie. I think we have reached out to our target audience because our facebook pages have people which are the same age or younger than us, this meant we could talk directly to people in our target audience. Giving our audience an element of control to what would make it into the final movie drew people in, but we also made sure our blogger page and posts would be interesting for people to read by embeding video, images and links to other sites. An example of the target audience being intersted in our movie would be “I liked the idea of the character owing money and having a limited time to give this, making the movie tense”, this is feedback we received on our video questionnaire, posted on YouTube [http://youtu.be/UwXJmjKl__4]. This is another way we reached out to a larger audience. Some feedback we received on our production was that there were a few continuity errors, but enjoyed the tension created by editing at the solid story. I think we could improve the production if we did it again by planning our filming time better to allow ourselves more time to film things that need to be re-shot.

Part 7 – Post production we decided we would be filming our production on digital cameras which use tape, and we would use Apple iMac computers with Final Cut Express to edit our production. We decided this because theses were the resources available at college and it was a place the group could meet and edit together. Because all our work was completed and stored at college it also meant we always had it there when we needed it and it couldn’t be forgotten so it was easier to reach deadlines. We also used Celtx to create our script; college also provided free Internet meaning we could upload all our work to blogger. Because these facilities were free it meant less money had to be spent. The only aspect, which was difficult, was adjusting to using a Mac, rather than a PC. From our work I have gotten a better grasp of using Macs, blogger and also Celtx We used Celtx as it has features built in which correctly format the script correctly, one problem we had is that we could not copy and paste or script to blogger so had to upload print screens. Final Cut Express was used because of its user friendliness and the help available from tutors, which knew how to operate the program if we ran into any problems such as rendering.

Part 8- After completing our preliminary task we were able to learn where we could improve in future. Although we had one continuity error this is a large improvement from our preliminary task. We also learned how to plan a production and work more smoothly as a team to reach deadlines. Although we are not great we can also act better on camera now rather than bursting out laughing every time. In our preliminary task there was little editing needed, only cuts. But in our final task we used things like fades and titles so we have now improved our editing skills and can now operate Final Cut Express better and quicker. We are better at operating the camera provided and have gotten better at setting up a shot or scene. We also now have more knowledge about how angles can create moods and power so we were able to factor this into our final production.